Saw Knocked Up last night with my girl (who LOVED it by the way), and while there are many, many things I could talk about from that movie, one of the parts that played most deeply for me was the married man, Pete (Paul Rudd), and his difficulty balancing his family life and his own individual sanity. It’s one of those things that I see myself struggling with, more or less, for the foreseeable future, and it was great to see it onscreen, without some happy, cuddly solution presented in the end.

Option-click (on Mac) or Alt-click (on Windows) on the album covers to download the songs, or download the whole mix at the bottom.

The Decemberists – Bridges and Balloons
This first track comes off a disc that The Believer Magazine put together last year. The theme was covers of indie music by other indie musicians. This is a lovely cover by The Decemberists of Joanna Newsom’s Bridge and Balloons.

Nick Drake – To the Garden
Most people probably haven’t heard about Nick Drake. He put out some great albums in the early 70’s and then sadly committed suicide in 1976. Some of his material is now being re-released for the first time in many years.

The Shins – A Comet Appears
These are the Garden State guys. Their new album, while very nice, is not nearly as memorable as their previous work. A Comet Appears is far and above my favorite track on the album – it’s quite haunting. Supposedly there’s a politicl message in there somewhere. If you can figure it out, let me know.

Mount Sims – How We Do
I love finding random music on the Internet. I also love crazy Europop. ‘Nuff said. Oh, and it’s got a great album cover!

Nickel Creek – Somebody More Like You
These guys make some of the most beautiful music out there. I’ve always had a soft spot for angry lover songs (You Oughta Know, anyone?), and this is my current favorite. “I hope you meet someone your height, so you can see eye to eye, with someone as small as you.” Awesome.

Thom Yorke – Analyse
I discovered Radiohead accidentally when I was 14. I was in a record store in an outdoor mall in Boulder, CO and I was probably trying to impress someone and I picked up OK Computer. I hated it for the first few listens, but it grew on me and soon I couldn’t get the drone out of my head. That’s what is so effective about their music, the momentum – the way the songs drive forward – while not necessarily going anywhere in particular. This track from lead singer Thom Yorke’s 2006 solo album has that drive in droves.

Spring Awakening – The Word of your Body
I spent part of my youth very involved in Musical Theater and I’m still a sucker for a great musical. Spring Awakening has all the essential elements: great music. teenage angst, and lots of sex and controversy.

Lupe Fiasco – American Terrorist (w/Matthew Santos)
I know it’s not exactly the majority opinion, but I think Lupe Fiasco is the most exciting thing to happen to Hip-Hop in a while. This is a great, very political track off his debut album, Food and Liquor.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – O Holy Night
Yeah, it was preachy and yeah, it’s now gone, but I loved this show. Aaron Sorkin knows exactly what strings to pull and in this Christmas episode he pulled them all. Wandering musicians from New Orleans playing onstage at Studio 60 with images of the city that no longer exists behind them…heartbreaking.

Snow Patrol – Make This Go On Forever
Great band. Very mainstream, but with a decidedly not so mainstream sound. This song carries a wonderful sense of being on the verge. And the Arcade Fire unison-y thing that is really hot in indie circles these days is handled expertly by Snow Patrol.

Norah Jones – Broken
This latest album from Norah Jones is a wonderful example of what can happen when a young talent takes the reins from the producers and makes an album by and for herself.

I’ve got a whole lot of music to share — quite the backlog actually. But Annie over at Jewibiquitous today reminded me of how much I love this song, so I thought I would start here, with Regina Spektor’s Samson:

The magicians over at Pixar have some great new stuff coming out this year and next.

First up is Ratatouille, opening June 29 in the U.S, about a Parisian rat who loves to cook, living under a fancy restaurant.

Click on the image to go see the trailer.

Most people have heard about that film. What many have not heard about, as of yet, is Pixar’s follow-up to Ratatouille, coming in Summer 2008.

There is no trailer for WALL-E yet and we don’t know very much about this film, but Pixar head John Lasseter recently explained the premise:

WALL-E is the story about the last little robot on Earth. He is a robot, and his programming was to help clean up Earth. You see, it’s set way in the future. Through consumerism, rampant, unchecked consumerism, the Earth was covered with trash. And to clean up, everyone had to leave Earth and set in place millions of these little robots that went around to clean up the trash and make Earth habitable again. Well, the cleanup program failed with the exception of this one little robot and he’s left on Earth doing his duty all alone. But it’s not a story about science fiction. It’s a love story, because, you see, WALL-E falls in love with [Eve], a robot from a probe that comes down to check on Earth, and she’s left there to check on and see how things are going and he absolutely falls in love with her. And he follows her back up to her main spaceship, and you see a vision of the space and the future in this movie like you’ve never seen before. It is really spectacular. But with all Pixar films, one of the things we pride ourselves in, not only a great story, but the characters, memorable, appealing characters and these little robot characters that help WALL-E and Eve, these rejected, defective little robots, are the most charming group of characters we have ever created. And so, in the end, always about Pixar films, it’s about the heart of the story. And this story is one of the most special things. Again, if you liked Finding Nemo, you’re going to love this movie, because Andrew Stanton is one of the most talented filmmakers working today.

Plus, we are hearing that the first 1/3 of the movie is played without dialogue, as he is alone on the planet. Needless to say, I cannot wait for this one!